Child health and wellness platform BabyBerry secures $1M angel funding
Parenting app BabyBerry has secured angel funding of USD one million, from a group of investors, led by Nitin Bagamane(Chairman, Tanglin and an industrialist). As a child health and wellness platform, it has been designed to help new-age parents provide a good environment for their child’s holistic growth and development. The funds will be used towards product development and marketing initiatives.
Story so far
CereBrahm Innovations, the parent company behind BabyBerry, was founded by Balasubramanian Venkatachalam, Subhashini Subramaniam and Dev Vig. The founders have prior experience in technology development, marketing in healthcare and internet domains in MNCs. Being parents themselves they are able to relate to the pain points and understand the need for a mobile based tech solution. The platform was launched in November 2015 and has over 50,000 downloads. The platform is accessible as a mobile app on both Google Playstore and iOS Appstore.
BabyBerry aims to differentiate itself from other parenting apps by focusing on the holistic development of the child by providing tools and resources that a parent would need. The platform comes with features like digital vaccination chart and reminders, WHO growth chart, milestone information, health records management and access to the nearest doctors based on geo location. The milestone information covers different aspects of child development – physical, cognitive, social, emotional and language. The platform also provides curated and personalized content from experts like pediatricians, nutritionists and psychologists.
Related read: [App Fridays] BabyBerry helps parents stay one step ahead of their baby’s needs
Parents need to sign up on the app and enter relevant details such as their baby’s date of birth, birth weight, height, gender, blood group, and gestation period to help the app provide relevant information and schedules for vaccination. Based on the information entered and updated, the app connects suppliers of baby-related products and services to a potential and relevant set of buyers.
BabyBerry has multiple revenue streams. BerryCart, the in-app ecommerce store provides parents access to baby essentials, toys and other items. Parents can also find doctors and clinics in their area and connect with them for an appointment.
As part of its expansion plan, BabyBerry will soon cater to expecting mothers and couples planning to start a family The company is partnering with domain specialists and wellness providers for assisting parents throughout their exciting journey of parenthood.
Sector overview
It is estimated that the market for baby care and related products and services stands at close to 50 million end-users making transactions worth $18 billion in India. Over the last five years, startups and mature companies have zeroed in on this segment. Important players in this sector include Firstcry.com, an online and offline enterprise selling baby care products, Mahindra’s BabyOye (formerly Mom&Me) that focuses on maternity wear and baby care products. Babychakra is a desktop-based social network for new parents and is looking to launch a mobile app soon. Babycenter provides content and collaboration services for children up to the age of one year, while Mycity4kids is a web and mobile app providing listings of child-friendly activities. Then there is MyChildApp, which helps parents screen mental disorders in children, which recently raised 100k in funding.
E-commerce is seeing explosive growth in India and niche players are gaining traction too. Childcare is a lucrative market as parents are generally not price conscious and aim to provide the best possible products and care for their children. Smartphones have already gained mainstream acceptance in India as a means to book taxis and home services. So an end-to-end platform providing information about child care, products and related services may gain mainstream popularity too.
Website: www.babyberry.in
